Anthony Williams p/k to the world as The Legendary Grand Master Roc Raida has passed away unexpectedly today Sept 19 2009. He is survived by his wife, 3 lovely daughters, mother and friends. Raida was recently in an mixed martial arts accident, something that he has been practicing for several years. Although he had under gone 2 surgeries with great success, was released to an inpatient physical therapy facility and was in great spirits the past few days. This morning he started to have complications and passed. The family asks for privacy at this time.
There are no words to describe the atmosphere on this past Friday night at William H. Maxwell High School, located in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York. The stats and final score didn’t matter either. This past Friday night was dedicated to an individual who lived up to the line the great and late Notorious B.I.G. recited on “Juicy”: “Bernard spread love because its the Brooklyn way.”
I knew Bernard Lewis through a couple of friends of mine who were also his friends. I remember one summer he decided to play in a basketball tournament. Bernard played the game of basketball to stay in shape, while the rest of the crew played the game of basketball with the aspirations of making it out of Brownsville playing the game we love. To us it meant, going to school for free or putting food on the table for our families. Bernard played with the Brownsville Jets in one of the best tournaments Brownsville ever had, S.T.A.Y. (Sincerely Teaching African Youth or Striving To Achieve Yours) Basketball Classic. It was the only tournament in Brownsville that players had numbers such as 66,77 and 88. I wore number 66. His coach was James “Fly” Williams. Read More »
Jay McCormick coached me at Broward Community College in Florida two years ago when I was a freshman. He passed way on Saturday at the age of 44 due to complications from cancer. He was one of five assisant coaches that I had and was the clearly the best. He would drive an hour and half from where he taught math to come to practice everyday along with games that were sometimes even much further. In fact, me and the rest of the team always wished he was the head coach. “He treated every player with respect, no matter if you were the star of the team or a bench player,” former Broward player Ryan Kardock says. He was constantly positive with all of us and at the end of the day wanted to see us do well on and off the court. Read More »
